


Need to Talk

by Duckydash13



Series: Doctor Who AU [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Kid Fic, Post-Episode: s02e04 The Girl in the Fireplace, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 17:04:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13839201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duckydash13/pseuds/Duckydash13
Summary: The Doctor and Rose need to talk. Mickey helpfully points this out.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As some people requested more of the AU that my earlier work, Bedtime Stories, is from, here is an earlier moment in the story.

“Rose, you need to tell him! I mean, I’m assuming he’s the father, but even if he isn’t. It’s not like he won’t see it anyway eventually, and that’s assuming he doesn’t have some alien _thing_ that means he knows sooner.”

“I know, Mickey. And I’m gonna tell him. Just, you know, later, when we have a chance to talk properly and not be kidnapped by clockwork robots!”

They heard footsteps approaching the TARDIS and promptly ended their conversation. The footsteps sounded too slow to Rose, and it occurred to her that, even if he didn’t speak about his feelings, sje could always tell. This walk was sad. Guilty.

This was further evidenced by the expression on his face as he entered the TARDIS. Not even a half-smile of greeting when he saw her. Just completely blank.

“Why her?” she asked, “Why did they think they could fix the ship with the head of Madame de Pompadour?”

The Doctor sighed. Yet another sign something was wrong.

“We’ll probably never know. There was massive damage in the computer memory base. Probably got confused,” he suggested. He walked to the console, explaining how the TARDIS would close the time windows. Rose watched him for a few moments, but something about him just seemed _off._

“Are you alright?” she asked, slightly scared of what the answer might be.

“I’m always alright,” he replied, and faked a smile. It was an obvious lie, but it gave her a way out.

“Come on, Mickey. You haven’t seen the rest of the TARDIS yet. She’s brilliant!” Rose led Mickey down a corridor that she knew would lead to his bedroom, in the hope that she could leave him there and finally have some time to process things by herself. He glared at her.

“Just cos he’s acting weird, doesn’t mean you don’t still have to tell him,” Mickey warned.

“I said I’m gonna tell him, okay?”

With that, she stormed off, hoping Mickey would have the sense to stay in his room and not follow her.

 

***

The Doctor stared blankly at the letter. He had read it twice already. The first time it had looked like a goodbye; the second time, an accusation. Now it just looked like words. They had no meaning left.

He heard footsteps, and hurriedly tucked the letter back into his jacket pocket. To his surprise, it was Mickey who had returned. At least it wasn’t Rose. He didn’t know if he could face Rose. But Mickey looked _angry_. Far more angry than he had any right to be.

“You need to talk to Rose.”

“What? I don’t-” The Doctor was thoroughly confused.

“Nah, mate. You don’t get to ask questions. Not when you abandoned us on that spaceship. I don’t care what happened or who you _needed_ to save, you abandoned us, Doctor. For five hours. And you need to talk to Rose.”


	2. Chapter 2

He eventually found her, in the library. She was sat on the sofa, with her back to the doorway. She didn’t turn around.

“Mickey said I need to talk to you.” His tone was almost that of a question, he was so uncertain of himself.

“Mickey’s an idiot.”

“The TARDIS seemed to agree with him.”

Rose glared at the ceiling and imagined for once having a moment’s privacy. She finally turned to look at him.

“Great, so I guess everyone’s ganging up on me. Isn’t that brilliant?”

“Rose, please. You’ve got to tell me what’s wrong! The TARDIS won’t tell me, and Mickey won’t either, apart from that I was gone for hours. And I _am_ sorry about that, you know I am. I didn’t mean to-”

“Yeah, but you still did though, didn’t you? You know you might not come back. You said so,” she accused. She was right, he had to admit. But he hadn’t wanted to go.

“You know I didn’t want to leave you?” he had to check, because it seemed like she really didn’t know. How could she not know?

“If you didn’t want to go, why did you go running off back there again as soon as you got back?”

Things started to make sense to him now. This was _jealousy._ Perhaps it wasn’t so much about him being gone, but him being gone with another woman.

“Rose, you know I never saw Reinette in remotely the same way that I see you. You’re so much more to me than her!”

“Well why don’t you try showing it, then?” She barged past him and out of the library. And while Rose might not have been shouting at him anymore, he was certainly getting a telepathic barrage from his ship. So perhaps that meant it wasn’t jealousy? Or not _just_ jealousy at any rate. Why did he always open himself up to such domestic ordeals? He couldn’t seem to escape them.

 

***

It was a couple of hours before he managed to find her again. But why would she be in the infirmary? Fear gripped him suddenly.

“You’re not sick?” he asked, his voice trembling slightly. She sighed, exasperated.

“I’m fine. Go away.”

“No, Rose, listen. I know I was rubbish earlier. I’m sorry. For all of it. And- and if you’re sick, you don’t have to hide it. I can help; I _want_ to help. And I’ll try to be better. I know I’m not good at these relationship things, but I promise I’ll try.”

“You’d better,” she muttered. It was surely only a matter of time before he found out anyway, even if he didn’t bother to read the displays clearly announcing her secret.

His head turned slightly, in confusion. A screen caught his attention and his eyes widened almost comically.

“You- you’re pregnant?”

For about half an hour, she indulged him in his ridiculous health tests (as if the TARDIS wouldn’t have told them if something were wrong) and let him fuss over her, even though he wasn’t completely forgiven yet. They both knew they had a lot more talking to do.

There was a pause in the tests. The Doctor hesitated, wanting to say something but not quite sure how to phrase it.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Nothing! Well, not nothing. Most importantly, everything is fine: you’re fine, the baby’s fine. It’s just- Well, obviously we don’t have to- It’s completely up to you, but on Gallifrey children were loomed so that there was less of a chance of complications. If you wanted, it might be safer to transfer the embryo to the TARDIS. Saves the whole difficult giving birth thing, and all sorts! And you’d still have a connection to the baby all through the pregnancy, since they’re 3 weeks old, they’ll have formed a slight telepathic bond with you by now. You don’t have to decide now, obviously, you’d have a few weeks before it would really be difficult and-”

“Okay.”

“What?”

“I said okay. If you think it is safer, we’ll do it.”

Within an hour, their child was safely growing within a virtual womb that the TARDIS had created for them and The Doctor and Rose finally had time to really talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading; hope you enjoyed it!  
> Comments are helpful :)


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